SECTION 3.0 - Durham County Council

involvement, art and culture, environmental education
and development. In terms
of
development the plan aims to ensure that where approved development takes
place with the Great North Forest it contributes to its vision of a high quality
wooded, multipurpose countryside. Development proposals include promoting
advance woodland planting on areas identified for future development; ensuring
that restoration proposals on extraction and tipping operations meet forest
objectives; securing the long term management of woodland and recreation
facilities established as part of permitted developments. The Great North Plan
divides the forest area into three discrete areas including the western hills (west
and north of Chester-le-Street), the central lowlands (north-east and south east
of
Chester-le-Street)
and the Durham Magnesian Limestone Plateau. In each area
there is a strategy for action and in addition thirty local management zones. A
range
of landscape management strategies have been identified for each of the
thirty zones
based upon conservation, restoration, enhancement and
reconstruction.
• North Pennines AONB Management Plan 2004-2009, North
Pennines
AONB Partnership, (2004).
The st atutory Management Plan sets out the agenda for the conservation and
enhancement
of the AONB for the five years between 2004 and 2009. It is the first
statutory
management plan for the North Pennines AONB, its production
a requirement of the Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000. The plan is Link with
currently under review – consultation occurred on a revised plan for the Open Space,
Recreation,
period 2009 to 2014 during September/October 2008.
Leisure and
The primary aim of the approved Management Plan is to provide a
Play Technical
framework
for action for the conservation and enhancement of the North Paper (No.5)
Pennines AONB. Many of the objectives relate to biodiversity and geodiversity
conservation and enhancement; the conservation and
enhancement
of the historic and cultural heritage of the North Pennines;
recreation, access and tourism enhancement. In relation to minerals planning
the
managem ent plan recognises that the landscape of the North Pennines has been
to a large deg ree shaped by the extraction of its rich mineral resources. It states
that any new quarrying or mineral extraction activity on a commercial scale would
be likely to constitute
major development and be subject to national planning
regulations on AONBs. That future planning
for existing mineral extraction within
the
AONB should balance the economic benefit which this may bring with the
potential impact on landscape, biodiversity and local communities. It
should also
consider the potential impact of any infrastructure and traffic issues which may
arise. Every encouragement should be given to after-use which complements the
surrounding landscape. This should not preclude industrial development
where this
is of a nature and scale compatible with its setting in an AONB. The
Management
Plan policy guidelines state that, ‘Proposals for mineral development in the AONB
should be subject to rigorous examination, with a balanced approach taken
to the
impact on the landscape, biodiversity, geo-diversity and the local economy.’
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